CSCI 5115 - User Interface Design, Implementation and Evaluation

This guide covers search tools and strategies for doing secondary research on your user population.

Introduction

Welcome to your library course guide for CSCI 5115, intended to support your secondary research of your user population. If you have questions on any of the information below, or are having difficulty finding the background information you want, you are welcome to email me (hcabullo@umn.edu) or schedule a research consultation.

- Hannah Cabullo, your Computer Science & Engineering librarian

Find statistics & reports

Introduction

Statistics and reports can give you a general overview of characteristics about your users.

Search tips

  • When searching more specific sources, like Statista and Pew Research Center, use general terms like:
  • seniors and smartphones
  • immigrants and internet access
  • When searching Google, add additional keywords like statisticsreport, survey, or demographics, to get at the type of information/source you're looking for.
  • Try multiple searches with different keywords, and search in multiple places.

Resources

Find scholarly research articles

Introduction

Scholarly articles include primary research other researchers have done with a population, as well as secondary research, like literature reviews, that gather together primary sources to gain a broader understanding of what is known on a topic. Scholarly research articles will likely be much more specific and in-depth than statistics and report-type sources mentioned above.

Search tips

See the two tutorials below for tips on searching library databases. In general, it works better to break your search into keywords rather than using long phrases or sentences like you might use to search Google. For example:

("older adults" OR seniors) AND health AND (smartphones OR tablets OR internet OR mobile device)

When using the Libraries Search (the search box on the Libraries homepage and linked below), limit Material Type in your search results to Articles if you want to just find scholarly research articles.

The search terms above, limited to articles, returns results such as:

Libraries Search 

Tutorial: Let's talk databases: Libraries Search

Let's talk databases: Libraries Search. 2 minutes 43 seconds.

This video introduces the Libraries Search database.

After viewing this video, you will be able to:

  • Access the Libraries Search database
  • Perform keyword searching
  • Filter and sort search results
  • View the Full text of articles or download a PDF
  • Generate a citation right in the database

And finally: you will know how to get Library help if you need it!

Tutorial: Database search tips

Database search tips tutorial. Self-paced.

Improve your searches! This guide will help you:

  • Apply search modifiers AND, OR, and NOT to your database searches
  • Recognize phrase searching and other advanced search techniques
Last Updated: Oct 4, 2023 2:36 PM